Forum: Prospective Challenges

Discussing: Left to Linger

Left to Linger

Here's this nuzgul: What if evil had not been overcome in Middle-earth? The challenge would be to write a story from an perspective, in any narrative style, about what would happen if any evil being, such as Sauron, Morgoth, or the Witch King, had not been defeated and overthrown.

Re: Left to Linger

Heh heh heh... yes, a most interesting proposition. What if the bad guys had not been vanquished (at one point or another)?
Realizing the possibilities for severely depressing stories... anyone feeling evil? Ainu-Laire, if you're reading this, this would be an opportunity to explore Aragorn's fate if the Ring War had not been won by the West.

Re: Left to Linger

Yes, I am reading this, and I am most interested in this challenge.
Ouch, that bite hurts >_<
Anyhow, I looked in the Nuzgul hutch and I cannot find it! However am I to sign up?
Oh, while I am at it, does anyone who reads this know any good websites/articles on torture? I am much too young and innocent to know anything about it... 0:-)

Re: Left to Linger

[Edited: Appreciating that real world examples, which happen to be very easily accessible right now for lamentable reasons, may be far too close for anyone's comfort, I'm deleting that part of the posting. However, I still do recommend talking with Ainae, as I know she has had to do research on the topic of torture for a story she wrote.) There is, apparently, a writer's guide to injuries, "Body Trauma", out there, which does have a section on the things you can do to torture a character. Otherwise, fanfic med (yahoo group) can probably give you the basics of what the human body can endure and still survive. You'll want to think of the end of torture--is it to get information, sheer sadism as punishment, or a dominance "game"? Depending on which it is, that may determine the severity of what the torturer is willing to inflict.
Think of simple things: extreme heat, cold, being forced to kneel on something hard or sharp (or both) for a long period of time, sleep deprivation, tearing out teeth, nails, hair (on various parts of the body), castration, blunt instrument trauma, simulating drowning by holding the head in a basin of water, starvation, dehydration (within limits), forcing a person into a very small, sealed space for a period of time--all such nastiness is relatively simple if you can control your prisoner's movements sufficiently. Then there's the ever popular psychological torture option.
P.S. It's not in the Hutch... but you can signal your willingness by posting here. So that's one person who is willing to write for this prompt? Do we have others?

Re: Left to Linger

..don't think I want to write on this one, but I was going to pop my 2cents in and say not to underestimate dehydration. I don't know any way a captor could control the amounts of pain, but as a means of control, it is debilitating. I was treated one time at a wilderness camp, the vet gave me IV fluids, but wouldn't dispense equine narcotics. I had both my kids without pain medication and it was a walk in the park compared to what I went through that weekend. The only thing I can imagine that would be worse would be to be slowly skinned or continuous electrical shock. (but of course they didn't have electricity in M-e)